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In OrCAD Capture 25.1, certain naming formats for off-page connectors cause abnormal jumps in the Signals navigation function.

Zhifeng Jin

I recently encountered an odd software bug while drawing schematics in OrCAD Capture.

1. Create a blank OrCAD Capture project, and add two schematic pages: Page1 and Page2.

2. Place two off-page connectors on Page1 with the net names A+9 and A+_ respectively.

3. Place three off-page connectors on Page2 with the net names A+9, A+_ and A_ respectively.
(The leading letter "A" can be replaced with any alphabetic character.)

Right-click any off-page connector and select the Signals option to bring up the signal navigation list. You will see disordered, incorrect jump targets in this list. Nevertheless, the exported final netlist contains fully correct electrical connections as expected.

You can test the jump function by sequentially clicking every off-page connector on both schematic pages to reproduce this defect.

This makes people mistakenly believe that the signals are not connected when actually checking the wiring relationships in the schematic.

Supplemental Note: This issue can only be reproduced after launching PCB Editor or PCB Presto.
  • TechnoBobby
    0

    Hi  ,

    I tested this on OrCAD Capture 25.1_S030 using the same steps, but could not reproduce the issue. I tried both in the default English setup and with local language enabled (Chinese), and in both cases the Signals navigation showed correct jump targets and navigation opened the respective pages properly on double‑click. From my testing, the behavior appears correct. Could you please confirm which 25.1 hotfix version you are using?

  • Zhifeng Jin
    0 in reply to TechnoBobby

    Same version 25.1-s030 on my end. Kindly ensure the off-page connector is named per the name I provided.

    Sorry, I forgot to mention an important detail: I had PCB Editor open at the same time while running the tests. You may test the behavior before and after launching PCB Editor or Presto to observe the difference.

    I have just reproduced the issue again. The abnormal signal jump only occurs after opening the PCB design tool.

  • Zhifeng Jin
    0 in reply to TechnoBobby

    Hi TechnoBobby,

    Could you reproduce this issue after opening PCB Editor or Presto?

    You only need to launch the PCB design software; there is no requirement to open a PCB file.

  • Zhifeng Jin
    0 in reply to TechnoBobby

    As an additional note, this bug still exists in OrCAD Capture 25.1 HF040, yet it seems no one has paid attention to this bug. In my opinion, this is actually a fairly critical bug.

  • Jon Lee
    0 in reply to Zhifeng Jin

    The problem lies with the "+" character; you can understand it as the character not being supported; it's not exactly a bug.

    A+9 is equivalent to A9
    A+_ is equivalent to A_
    It can be understood as if the "+" character does not exist.


    Fixing this is not recommended; it can cause issues in certain types of searches, such as those involving regular expressions.

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